The daughter of the first man in space came to Britain to unveil a statue in his honour – and revealed how Britons “astonished” him during a visit 50 years ago.
Elena Gagarina was joined by Prince Michael of Kent on Thursday as she inaugurated the statue of pioneering Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin outside the British Council’s headquarters.
Ms Gagarina, who is the general director of Moscow’s Kremlin Museums, said she was “very proud” to unveil the statue exactly 50 years to the day after Gagarin met the Queen as part of a visit to the UK in 1961.
She said: “I think that if my father knew about this he would be very proud too.
“He was greatly impressed with the reception of people of the United Kingdom he had in those days 50 years ago.
“As he knew from newspapers and literature they are very closed but he felt when he came to Great Britain that everybody liked him very much and they expressed their joy so that he was astonished.”
Gagarin was 27 when he journeyed into space on board the Vostok 1 space capsule at a speed of 27,400kph in the first manned space flight.
He orbited the earth for 108 minutes in April 1961 and upon landing became famous on both sides of the Iron Curtain separating the communist east from the capitalist west.
The statue made by Russian sculptor Anatoly Novikov is a gift from the Russian Space Agency and will stand in The Mall opposite a statue of explorer Captain James Cook for a year.
Explaining why her father had visited the UK despite Cold War tensions between Britain and the Soviet Union, Ms Gagarina said: “First he was invited by the people of Manchester and then he was invited to London and met here with the Prime Minister, Mr Macmillan and then with Her Majesty the Queen.”
The Royal Family was also represented at the inauguration in central London by the Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. The Queen’s first cousin, who is a qualified interpreter of Russian, hailed Gagarin as an “international ambassador of scientific development”. His Royal Highness said in a speech: “Soon after the flight he (Gagarin) stood here in London to a rapturous welcome bringing with him some of the euphoria that was attached to him in his own country.